Cain Velasquez savors big-fight opportunity

Heavyweight prospect Cain Velasquez couldn’t get a fight for more than a year.

The former Pac-10 All-American wrestler launched his MMA career with decisive victories in Strikeforce and BodogFIGHT in a span of just over two months in 2006. Showing signs that the transition from wrestler to fighter was quickly taking hold, the Salinas, Calif. born Velasquez stopped both opponents by TKO within the first five minutes.

Velasquez, now 25, spent the next year looking for another chance to prove he belonged in the UFC.

“We were trying to get some fights locally to build my record, get some ring time and get to the UFC,” he said. “We couldn’t find any fights. We just had bad luck. … Shows would get canceled; guys would back out of fights. We had about six or seven fights that didn’t happen that we were getting ready for.”

Undaunted, Velasquez continued to plug away in the gym. The education major graduated as a two-time wrestling All-American from Arizona State and relocated to San Jose in August 2006 to train with American Kickboxing Academy. Lacking additional fights to showcase Velasquez’s talent, AKA’s Bob Cook used his connections to take the heavyweight directly to the UFC’s decision maker.

“Me and ‘Crazy’ Bob went to Vegas and took a couple of other guys and trained in front of Dana White,” Velasquez said. “I’m not going to lie to you; I felt a lot of pressure to perform, but once I was there, I felt really good and training went well.”

The grappling-and-sparring “audition” late last year at the UFC training center with Christian Wellisch and Mike Kyle impressed White enough that he signed Velasquez to a four-bout contract, and Velasquez finally had another fight. He looked sharp in his UFC debut, with a first-round TKO of Australia’s Brad Morris at UFC 83 in April.

For an encore, Velasquez (3-0) has landed on Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 14 card on Spike TV in a supporting role to the Anderson Silva-James Irvin headliner. He’s set to face another wrestling-bred fighter in Jake O’Brien (10-2 MMA, 4-1 UFC), who’s getting a second shot in the UFC after being cut earlier this year.

“This is a great opportunity,” Velasquez said. “It’s another step up the ladder and getting me closer to achieving my goals. I think I’m a lot more comfortable with my hands, and if I can stop his shots, I’ll return with some hands and kicks.”

Even though Velasquez’s only previous exposure to boxing was hitting the heavy bag as a kid with his father by his side, learning the standup game has come naturally. Velasquez feels at home on his feet and initiating exchanges with opponents. However, while that adjustment has “come pretty easily” for Velasquez, learning the ins and outs of jiu-jitsu hasn’t been quite as smooth. At this point, he’s only two years into fulltime MMA training and isn’t in a hurry to rush through learning the finer points of the sport’s multiple disciplines.

In addition to the time spent on grappling, sparring and technique, Velasquez has been focused on becoming a more powerful fighter through specialized work with Joe Grasso, who runs the Elite Fitness gym in San Jose.

“I think my power (in striking) has improved a lot,” Velasquez said. “Once I started with Joe, I felt like my power increased tremendously in a short period of time. We’re doing a lot of explosive stuff to get my power up in both my punches and kicks.”

While Velasquez once considered coaching wrestling as a career option, with his immediate future now mapped out in the UFC, he’s committed himself to being a fighter, and he’s planning for championship-level success. With only three pro fights to his name, he already has a publicist scheduling his interviews with the media.

Steve Sievert is the lead staff writer and business columnist for MMAjunkie.com. He is also the former MMA beat writer and blogger for the Houston Chronicle.

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